Teen Wolf Boss Previews Malia's 'Progressive' Arc in Final Season: 'She's a Wild Animal With Needs of Her Own'
Stiles may be stealing the focus of Teen Wolf‘s final season, but that doesn’t mean the remaining members of Scott’s pack have been — wait for it — forgotten.
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“We really wanted to give Malia a lot to do this year,” executive producer Jeff Davis tells TVLine of Shelley Hennig’s character. “She’s one of our favorites. She’s fun, she’s funny and she’s not your typical teenage girl. Plus, Shelley is up for anything. She loves to work, and the crew absolutely adores her. I told my writers to make a list of everything we really wanted to do this season, and one of those things was to give Malia a really good storyline.”
As for Malia’s unenthusiastic hookup with Nathan (played by Teen Beach Movie‘s Ross Butler) last week, Davis has this to say:
“We wanted to see Malia as a bit of a player. She’s a wild animal, and she has needs of her own. What is she like without Stiles, without that relationship anymore? There were two characters we wanted to see not in a relationship this season, and that was Scott and Malia. It provides a nice new perspective on her and how she’s still learning things about how to act with humans in a human society.”
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And then there’s Malia’s now-infamous nude scene from the season premiere. Davis says there was some debate in the writers’ room over whether Scott should have shielded his eyes until Malia — who just reverted back from being a full-on coyote — covered up, but Davis was adamantly against that.
“She’s a beautiful teenage girl, and she’s not ashamed of her body,” he says. “[The pack members] treat her completely normal. They’ve seen it before, and it’s not a big deal. I think that’s a progressive thing to show to the world.”
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Your thoughts on Malia’s current path? Hopes as we continue the final season? Drop ’em all in a comment below.
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